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Month: October 2014

Robertson County Judge Jan Roe is fit to be tied. In a recent post on her campaign Facebook page, Judge Roe claimed — without any specifics whatsoever — that I was “lying” on this blog and elsewhere, then she suggested that I was obsessed and deranged. This reminds me of the good old days in the courthouse, when then-District Attorney John Paschall (a political ally of Judge Roe) would publicly call me a “queer” or a “homo.” (I’m straight, but thanks for your interest, John).

Beneath Roe’s Facebook post, I posted a comment asking Roe to identify specifically what she thought I was lying about. I also offered to let Roe write her own rebuttal, which I would post verbatim and unedited on this blog. Roe quickly deleted the comment (and I am informed that she has deleted every other comment that disagreed with her post).

Yesterday, I sent the following e-mail to Judge Roe:

Judge Roe,

[Name deleted] informed me about your objections to my October 19, 2014 blog post. If I have misstated something, I certainly want to correct it. According to [name deleted], your original argument in January centered on your definition of “disabled” and did not concern your use of a vote harvester to collect absentee ballots. [Name deleted] said that argument arose later. If you believe anything else is incorrect, please identify the error with as much specificity as possible. Alternatively, you can write your own version of events or your own response, and I will post it on my blog unedited. Thank you.

Ty Clevenger

As of this afternoon, Judge Roe still has not responded, and I am not holding my breath. Like most bullies, Judge Roe pushes people around, then cries foul when somebody pushes back. Regardless, my offer to post her rebuttal on this blog still stands. She and all of her cronies can also post whatever they wish in the comments section below, and they can do it without fear that their comments will be deleted.

I have nothing to hide. How about you, Judge Roe?

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Last week’s article in the Washington Post about black voters in St. Louis revolting against local Democratic candidates got me thinking about Robertson County, where black residents may be turning against the white (and often racist) Democratic establishment. If so, it is only the latest sign that the local political machine, a.k.a. the Booger County Mafia, is beginning to unravel.

First, I should mention some news that will likely send a shiver through the political machine: Senator John Cornyn recently asked the Texas Rangers and the U.S. Department of Justice to respond to my letter reporting fraud and political corruption in Robertson County. I have not seen Cornyn’s letter to the Rangers or DOJ, but a source in Austin told me last week that it has circulated within the Texas Department of Public Safety and at least one other state agency. You can read my letter to Cornyn by clicking here, and his response to me by clicking here. My earlier letter to DOJ can be found at BoogerCountyMafia.com (or you can click here), as can the “road map to an indictment” that I sent to District Attorney Coty Siegert.

As you can see from the BCM website, I’ve already provided prosecutors with enough evidence to indict District Judge Robert M. Stem and attorneys Bryan F. “Rusty” Russ and James H. “Jimmie” McCullough. All three of them are key players in the white Democratic political machine, as is their ally, County Judge Jan Roe (more on her below). Meanwhile, the disbarment case of former Robertson County District Attorney John C. Paschall is scheduled to be heard in January, and I suspect a special grand jury will be convened before the holidays in order to indict Paschall for stealing from the estate of Marium Oscar.

As I was writing this blog post on Monday evening, I learned from multiple sources that Charles Ellison, the Republican challenger to Judge Roe, passed a polygraph test in response to allegations that he offered to pay for votes. Ellison took the test in Austin, but I don’t know yet whether the test was administered by DPS, another agency, or a private examiner. As I mentioned in my post on Saturday, the allegations against Ellison looked like an attempt to distract from Judge Roe’s own shady campaign practices. Ellison has now challenged his accusers to take a polygraph, but I doubt they will accept, because they probably know they were lying.

One more bullet point: on Monday I was retained by Hearne City Council members Joyce Rattler, Hazel Embra, and Lashunda White to force the city council to hold a recall election for Councilwoman Maxine Vaughn. You can read my letter to Hearne City Attorney Rusty Russ by clicking here, and I’ll have more to say about it below. Now, back to my original story… … Read more

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Robertson County District Attorney Coty Siegert recently asked Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to settle a dispute between Siegert and Robertson County Judge Jan Roe over voting by mail, and I suspect his request will ultimately prompt the Texas Secretary of State to change the application form for mail-in ballots. Meanwhile, the dispute between Siegert and Roe is still reverberating through the courthouse.

Back in January, Siegert, a Republican, and Roe, a Democrat, got into a shouting match in the courthouse about whether Hearne residents were illegally registering to vote absentee by claiming that they were disabled. According to Roe, voters could vote by mail if they had any kind of disability (maybe a speech impediment?), whereas the Texas Election Code defines “disability” as “a sickness or physical condition that prevents the voter from appearing at the polling place on election day without a likelihood of needing personal assistance or of injuring the voter’s health.” See Tex. Election Code 82.002(a)(emphasis added).

As it turns out, Roe had hired a convicted felon to recruit potential voters. That campaign worker had been targeting “The Hill” and the Columbus Village neighborhood in Hearne, trying to sign up as many absentee voters as possible, apparently without regard to whether the voters had “a sickness or physical condition that prevents the voter from appearing at the polling place on election day…” After Siegert questioned Roe’s definition of “disability”, Roe reportedly got angry and accused Siegert of trying to suppress the vote.

According to Siegert, he said at the time that he had no intention of prosecuting any voters – who would have had good reason to believe that they were qualified to receive an absentee ballot – but only the people who were knowingly inducing voters to break the law. (That happens to be the same policy adopted by the attorney general’s office). Roe, who is not an attorney (even though she is a judge), argued that because “disability” is undefined on the ballot application, she was free to define the term as she saw fit.

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About this blog

LawFlog is the blog of Ty Clevenger, a Texas attorney who lives in Manhattan. Posts are irregular at best (and Dulcolax doesn't seem to help). You can reach Ty at tyclevenger at gmail dot com, you can follow Lawflog on Facebook or Twitter (@Ty_Clevenger), or you can leave a voice message at 979-985-5289.